Oblivion:Marksman

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Skill: Marksman
Governing Attribute: Agility
Specialization: Stealth

Marksman is the art of using bows and arrows. There are no crossbows or other ranged weapons in the game. While the trajectory of the arrow is predetermined and marksman skill doesn't change your accuracy, it significantly increases the damage of a ranged attack.

Contents 1 Mastery 1.1 Mastery Perks 1.2 Skill Benefits 1.3 Skill Increases 1.4 Dialogue 2 Character Creation 3 Equipment 3.1 Bows 3.2 Arrows 3.3 Enchantments 3.4 Custom Spells 4 Using a Bow and Arrow 5 Tactics 5.1 Sniper Tips 5.2 Melee Enemies 5.3 Magical Enemies 5.4 Archer Enemies 6 Notes

[edit] Mastery

[edit] Mastery Perks

• A Novice (marksman < 25) suffers normal fatigue loss when drawing a bow.
• An Apprentice (marksman 25-49) suffers no fatigue loss when drawing a bow.
• A Journeyman (marksman 50-74) has the ability to zoom when drawing a bow by holding the block button.
  • This can be particularly useful in dark environments, like caves or outdoors at night.
• An Expert's (marksman 75-99) successful hit has a chance of knockdown.
  • This is especially useful against melee fighters, since it will send them flying back, providing you more time to do some damage.
  • The knockdown is not guaranteed, so it should not be relied upon.
• A Master's (marksman 100) successful hit has a chance of paralysis.
  • When you paralyze your opponent you can use a secondary melee weapon to quickly inflict a lot of damage. When they start to get up, you still have enough time to back off and take another shot.
  • Paralysis is not guaranteed, so it should not be relied upon.
• While the melee-oriented skills of Blade, Blunt, and Hand to Hand require a slower power attack to deliver knockdown/paralysis effects, an Expert/Master marksman simply uses their normal attack to deliver those same effects.

[edit] Skill Benefits

Improving your marksman skill increases the damage that you do, as reflected in the damage shown for bows and arrows in your inventory. Your skill also determines the distance that your arrow will travel.

[edit] Skill Increases

The only way to increase your skill level is to successfully hit a live target. You gain 0.8 experience points per successful hit, regardless of damage inflicted. The archery targets found at most Fighters Guilds can be useful to learn how to fire more accurately, but do not give you experience points.

General tips on how to increase your marksman skill are provided at General Combat Strategies.

Some useful techniques specifically for marksmanship are:

• Find an enclosure with a gate, then attract the attention of a hostile creature, preferably one without ranged attacks. Lure him into the enclosure and close the gate. You can now shower him with arrows as he is unable to escape or harm you. This also works the other way around, with you inside the enclosure. If the creature loses interest and leaves because it cannot get to you, you can always get it back by opening the gate for a while. Use low quality weapons (i.e., cheap iron arrows) to make the training session last longer.
• Fire at a summoned Frost Atronach. A Frost Atronach is better than other summons because your arrows bounce off of it instead of penetrating its flesh, allowing you to pick them up once it disappears. It is also an easy target, being one of the largest and slowest creatures in the game.

See also:

• Increasing Skills: Tips on how to improve your skills semi-naturally.
• Trainers: Pay for marksmanship lessons.
• Marksman Training: A master marksman wants a new bow before she will train you.
• Skill Books: Books that provide lessons in marksman.
• Increasing Attributes: Tips on training skills to improve the Agility attribute.
• Free Skill Boosts: One free marksman skill boost (for 2 points) is available by completing the quest Whodunit?.

[edit] Dialogue

When your skill reaches 70 or higher, NPCs will start saying: "You have the eyes of a trained marksman."

[edit] Character Creation

The following races provide initial skill bonuses in marksman:

• +5 bonus: Dunmer
• +10 bonus: Bosmer

The following standard classes include Marksman as a major skill:

• Acrobat, Agent, Archer, Assassin, Monk, Thief, Witchhunter

[edit] Equipment

Archery requires both a bow and an arrow, both of which must be equipped in your inventory to be able to fire a shot. The total damage done is the sum of the damage due to the bow and the damage due to the arrow. Both bows and arrows can be enchanted, although custom enchantments are only possible for bows. Poison can also be used to increase archery damage; poison is only applied to the bow.

Enemies who are immune to normal weapons can be hurt with silver, daedric or magical arrows, or with any arrows shot from a silver, magical or daedric bow. Poison can also be used; note that even enemies who are immune both to poison and normal weapons (like ghosts) will be hurt by poisoned normal arrows (although the poison effect will be resisted).

[edit] Bows

Bows, like all other weapons, can be made of various materials ranging from Rusty Iron (the poorest quality and least damage) to Daedric (the best quality and most damage). A wide range of enchanted bows can be also be obtained, custom enchantments are also possible.

Here is a short list of some notable bows.

• Black bows are the best bows available at level 1. They can be obtained from Rockmilk Cave, with or without completing the related quest, Knights of the White Stallion.
• Bound bows can be acquired using spells or from Sidri-Ashak Rune Stones. By using the permanent bound item glitch you can get a good bow (better than elven) that is weightless, works on creatures who are immune to normal weapons, and can be enchanted.
• Shadowhunt. At high levels, the Turn Undead effect available from this bow is higher than any other available in the game.
• Hatreds Soul is the strongest bow in the game if acquired at a high level. Even when uncharged the level 19+ version is stronger than a daedric bow and much lighter. Found in Random Oblivion World 2.

In order to use poison, you apply the poison to the bow. Therefore, the bow you wish to use must currently be your equipped weapon. Select the poison you wish to use from your inventory, and you will be asked whether you wish to poison the bow. Because the poison is applied to the bow, you can still switch arrows, and the poison effect will remain. It will be added only to the next arrow you fire from that bow. If you miss your shot, the dose of poison is lost (the arrow on the ground is not poisoned anymore).

Have in mind, that every arrow shot from the bow (no matter if it hits or misses), damages the bow, making it less effective.

[edit] Arrows

Arrows also come in many materials, ranging from Iron to Daedric. When you equip a quiver of arrows, those arrows stay equipped even if you use a melee weapon, so hotkeying your arrows is not necessary. If you wish to rapidly change arrows (i.e. from one enchantment to another), however, hotkeys can be useful. When you run out of the specific type of arrows that are equipped you will no longer be able to use your bow, until you select another type of arrow from your inventory.

Custom enchantments for arrows are not possible. However, you can find enchanted arrows in loot and purchase them from merchants (as with all items, the best quality ones can only be found in loot, not purchased). If you have the Unearthing Mehrunes Razor plugin many arrows can be found there.

[edit] Enchantments

The best enchantments to use on your bows and arrows depend upon the desired effect.

• For maximum damage, Elemental Damage can be very effective, in particular if you choose an element for which your target has a natural weakness.
• Absorb Health is also good, because it will increase your health as well as damaging theirs.
• Another tactic is to enchant a bow with calming effects, so that every arrow that hits makes your target put away his weapon.
• Try a Burden or Drain Strength enchantment, which if strong enough can freeze your target in place, allowing you to get in multiple easy shots.
• Soul trap for at least 1 sec is very useful for keeping your enchanted bow fully charged.

[edit] Custom Spells

Proper use of magic may allow you to do more damage to an opponent. Ideally, you want to make a custom spell that weaken your target while strengthening yourself.

Here are some good effects you may want to consider using for your custom spell; make sure the effects last long enough for your arrow to find its target: Weakness to Magic, weakness to elemental damage, Drain Health , Paralyze, all on target. Fortify Marksman and Invisibility, both on self.

Tailor the spell for the bow you plan to use. Weakness to magic is an obvious choice for any enchanted bow while elemental damage needs to be tailored to your specific bow. Drain health gives a useful extra boost while paralyze can make sure your target remains in place long enough for you to hit him with an arrow. Fortify marksman makes your attack even deadlier (fortify agility and luck may also help here) while invisibility makes sure you remain undetected.

[edit] Using a Bow and Arrow

It is worth practicing using your bow and arrow on a practice target to learn how to aim; this will not improve your character's marksman skill, but will allow you to learn how to aim. Since arrows fly in a ballistic curve, you need to aim somewhat higher than your target (depending upon the distance). One good place is to practice is the archery range behind the Chorrol Fighters Guild.

Position yourself a good distance from the target (e.g., the distance 3-4 seconds of running backwards takes you). Press and hold the attack button; a quick press and release will only drop the arrow immediately in front of you. Aim your crosshairs slightly above where you want to hit – for the target practice, this means about the top of the red circle. Against an actual person, depending on how far away you are you will aim for their head or above; remember that arrows will drop as they fly. Release the attack button, and watch the arrow fly!

Before you leave to check on where you hit, mark your location with a piece of dropped equipment. That way you can keep practicing from the same distance and improve your aim. Go and see where your arrow is. If it is stuck in low, aim higher and try again. If it’s too high, aim lower. Keep practicing until you get it right, and try and remember how far the target is. When you’re firing at an enemy, knowing the distance and how high above your target you have to aim is essential. Keep on practicing farther and farther back, marking your place with equipment to aid you. The best part about this kind of practice is that you can retrieve your arrows afterwards, so you aren’t wasting any.

Note that while you are holding the attack button (i.e., have the string drawn on your bow), you can perform many actions (apply poisons, drink potions, open doors etc.). The list of things that cannot be done is much shorter:

• You cannot cast spells while in this position.
• Blocking is impossible with a drawn bow. Blocking with a bow is only possible if you don't have an arrow nocked on the string.
• A Novice of Acrobatics cannot jump while an arrow is nocked.
• While you can initiate conversations with an NPC with an arrow drawn on the bow, if it is the NPC that tries to start a conversation (as scripted in a quest) the arrow is released and you will likely end up shooting the person if they're facing you!

If you access the inventory just remember to hold the attack button while entering and leaving it; while in the inventory you can release the attack button. Since the game is paused while you are in your inventory, it is easy to apply poison to multiple successive rapid shots. Or you could simply hotbar poisons for quicker archery.

There are two ways you can remove a nocked arrow from a drawn bow, preserving the enchantment charge or poison on the weapon.

• First, you can initiate a conversation with an NPC: exiting from the conversation will return your bow to a resting state (be sure to release the attack button before exiting the conversation, or you'll nock the arrow again). The limitation of this technique is that you must first find an NPC who is willing to talk.
• Secondly, a Journeyman of Acrobatics can disarm their bow by using the Dodge feature. There is the sound of an arrow being shot off, but a look at your ammunition and/or enchantment charges should show that no shot was actually taken.

The bow is useless underwater and against underwater enemies. Although you can fire a shot, the arrow drops almost immediately; even if you are close enough to make contact with your enemy, no damage is inflicted. Using a bow while swimming is also unreliable and difficult. However, archery while Water Walking is perfectly possible and can be a powerful tactic.

[edit] Tactics

The ideal situation for an archer is: one arrow, one kill. Not only do you not waste any ammunition, but there is no worry about defending yourself from your target's retaliation. Early in the game, the sneak attack bonus can be sufficient to kill most creatures with one shot. Higher-level enemies can be much more difficult to kill however.

[edit] Sniper Tips

• Be patient: don’t try and make a shot if the target is wandering about. Wait until you know their routine, how long they stop walking for, and what way they’re facing.
• Remain undetected: wait until your target is far enough away from other enemies that firing your shot will not attract anyone else's attention.
• Use enchantments: combine an elementally enchanted bow with damage-enchanted arrows for best effect.
• Use poisons: brew your own damage health poisons to use on your arrows.
• Remember that you can combine the sneak bonus, arrow enchantment, bow enchantment and multi-effect poison for huge damage.

[edit] Melee Enemies

This can be the most difficult type of enemy to deal with as a marksman. Your best bet is to start off in sneak mode. Getting that extra 3x damage is essential for the long-range character. Try to position yourself with lots of obstacles between you and your targets to hinder their advance. Continue to fire as they run towards you to cause as much damage as possible.

If you have enough room, especially against slow opponents, try kiting (running backwards while continuing to shoot). If your acrobatics skill is at least 50, you can hold block and press back and jump: you will backflip very quickly out of the way and put more distance between you and your enemies. If you are cornered, prepare to pull out a backup melee weapon. Hopefully, you will have done enough damage already that you can quickly finish them off.

If there are multiple melee enemies, there are two main options:

• Bows and arrows with area effect damage enchantments (e.g., Arrow of Immolation (65 fire damage in 10 feet), Stormcall Arrow, etc.) can be fired into a group, doing wonders to even the odds. After a couple of shots, any remaining enemies will be significantly weakened.
• Or, fire a single arrow from the shadows at the closest enemy, then lure that one enemy to an out-of-the-way location so you can dispatch them at your leisure. Repeat until all enemies have been dispatched of.

Occasionally, these tactics will lead to you getting swarmed by many large and intimidating foes. Should this occur, simply use every archer’s fallback: Invisibility. For example, weak potions of invisibility are fairly priced; each one will give you 15 seconds of respite, allowing you to make your escape and come back to the battle on your own terms.

Melee enemies could actually be the easiest enemies to deal with if you could take advantage of the terrain. Since their weapons have limited range, go to places where they would not be able to attack you while you can still shoot arrows at them. For example, you could jump on top of ledges, walls or big rocks. If a place like this is far away, you could lure the enemy to the place.

[edit] Magical Enemies

As before, your best bet is to begin in sneak mode and try to get in a good first strike. Mages rarely wear armor, so a one-hit kill is a definite possibility. It is often unnecessary to use poison on the first enemy.

Even though mages usually have a low amount of health you may not always be able to kill them before they spot you. Silence spells or arrows are particularly helpful, but beware that some mages are also quite adept at melee combat.

If you fail to silence them, just strafe or dodge (for a journeyman of Acrobatics) out of the way of their offensive spells and keep firing. If a mage succeeds in summoning a creature, do your best to ignore the summon. Once the mage dies, the creature will vanish. If the creature gets close or is blocking your shot, use invisibility to reposition and get a better angle for your shot.

[edit] Archer Enemies

As always, the first arrow should be fired from sneak mode for the damage bonus. When the archer notices you, they will usually come a bit closer and then start firing arrows at you. The general pattern of the archer is to nock and fire an arrow, then strafe back and forth so you can’t get a bead on them before aiming and firing again. You can waste a lot of arrows shooting at these jokers if you’re not ready for their dodging tactics.

The best option available is to only fire when they make ready an arrow. Draw your bow back and wait as they strafe. When they pull out an arrow, fire and prepare to do some strafing of your own. Typically, archers won’t fire when you’re strafing, so pause briefly and give them something to shoot at before sidestepping the arrow. If you are a journeyman in acrobatics, then you may be able to get two arrows away at them before their one arrow gets to where you are. When they stop moving and pull out an arrow, fire the first arrow and immediately fire the second. Then go into a side roll (hold block and hit strafe and jump) and avoid the arrow just in time. It takes good timing and lots of practice, but is incredibly satisfying to pull off.

When their bows break (archer NPCs NEVER run out of arrows) or they're just plain frustrated, archers will drop their bow and pull out a secondary weapon (usually a dagger); their blade skill is usually poor, so you don't need to worry about their dagger too much.

Good enchantments for fighting archers (besides the standard damage enchantments) are hard to come by. A decent pick is usually absorb marksman, as it improves your damage-doing ability while harming theirs. A damage agility enchantment will also ruin their shooting. If you combine both enchantments, the archer might fail to hit you even if you are only five feet away. Using calming enchantments will get them to put their bow away and stop dodging, which is very convenient.

[edit] Notes

• Remember to pull the string all the way (hold attack button), the damage caused will be much stronger and range much greater, while the time increases only slightly. You can also time the attack more accurately (the arrow is released the moment you release the button.)
• Enemies can't jump! If you find a spot that can only be reached by jumping, enemies without ranged weapons/spell can be attacked with impunity. Before you attack, check if the spot is really available (some convenient sniper spots are surrounded with invisible walls).
• You can (poorly) block attacks with the bow.
• When shooting from far away while in sneak mode, switch to a melee weapon right after firing your bow and before the arrow has hit its target: then the melee weapon and not the ranged weapon damage multiplier applies (4x or 6x instead of 2x or 3x) - double the deadliness of your shots!
• Once your renown reaches 40, you can visit the Sithian heaven doomstone to receive the greater power Sithian Web. One of several benefits of this power is that it fortifies your marksman skill 20 points once a day for 120 seconds.
• After your enemy is dead, check its inventory for arrows you have fired at it, which you can retrieve for re-use. Some will be missing however, presumably too damaged to be used again. Enchanted arrows cannot be retrieved.
• It is possible to retrieve a missed enchanted arrow, providing you can reach the arrow quickly enough.
• A handy way to get free arrows is to watch NPC archers practice, retrieve the arrows that the NPC fired and keep the arrows for yourself.
• A handy way to get free arrows is to watch let NPC enemies fire at you, sidestepping everything all the while. Presto: free arrows.